Lack of goat breeding knowledge shocks long-term Boer breeder

The lack of understanding of how the number of teats, their structure and distance from each other affects the udders of female offspring and ultimately their ability to rear kids has shocked industry consultant Graham Reimers.

Mr Reimers, one of Australia's earliest Boer goat breeders, says the dearth of knowledge will set the burgeoning industry back if it isn't addressed immediately.

He was speaking at workshops in south west Queensland organised by Sydney-based commodities trading company Antap International Pty Ltd to gauge producer interest in supplying the top-end domestic goat meat market.

In order to be successful, the venture would require a constant supply of quality product, where Mr Reimer's breeding expertise could assist.

He said he was increasingly finding a huge void of information structured specifically for commercial goat producers, laying the blame at the feet of both the Boer goat association for not disseminating knowledge and with Meat & Livestock Australia for not responding to the growth of interest in breeding goats.

"This teat issue - fishtail teats, teats too close together, too many teats - means kids can't feed," he said.

"It's not been a problem in ferals because they've had 150 to 200 years of natural selection, and a dairy goat background, which itself has had hundreds of years of emphasis on teats.

"But in two years the overall industry will see the impact of the number of bucks with teat faults now being sold."

Mr Reimer said the only solution was to cut the head off bucks with teat faults, no matter how much had been paid for them, and to do the same to all their progeny, or the deficiency would recur in future generations.

It was one of many pointers imparted to 85 attendees at three workshops held at St George, Dirranbandi and Roma, which resulted in "excellent feedback" according to Antap managing director John Wallace.

That was backed up by Teelba's Anne McNamara who said because they were new to the industry, any information was welcome.

"We went into goats as a sideline to utilise some of our country," she said. "Now we feel we might have to manage them more - there was a great lot of experience there today."

Another tip from Mr Reimers was to look at the distance between the corner of a potential sire's eye to the tip of its nose, saying that to look at the head of a Boer goat was like looking into its soul.

"If that's long, it's going to be long in the neck, body and rump," he said. "That's the money area - you can't put extra kilograms on a short rump."

The owner of one of the seven oldest Boer goat studs in Australia, Farmworld at Amberley, Mr Reimers also threw in the curveball of dairy goat genetics to workshop attendees.

He uses Toggenburg and Australian Melaan genetics, saying they played a very important role, not just because they were long in the head, body and rump, but because of their udders and milk supply.

Their pigmentation also worked in tropical environments where there were concerns about skin cancer.

"If you cross them with ferals you get great hybrid vigour plus milk supply," he said, adding that Anglo Nubians weren't on his breeding list, once again because of teat issues.

"We won't touch poll goats - they'll either breed hermaphrodites or sterile offspring down the track," he said.

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